Luminescent tube terminal connection sockets



Au 1, 1933. F. L. NELSON 1,920,710

LUMINESCENT TUBE TERMINAL CONNECTION SOCKETS Filed Sept. 22, 1951 E 50 i H Patented Aug. 1, 1933 LUMINESCENT TUBE TERMINAL CONNEQTION SOCKETS Ferdinand L. Nelson, Los Angeles, Calif.

Application September 22, 1931 Serial No. 564,329

7 Claims.

The present application deals with an improvement to be used in conjunction with the subject matter of the above mentioned applications. The primary object of this invention is to provide a mounting for luminescent tubes of the character described which provides means for detachably securing the ends of the luminescent tubes so that the tubes may be readily replaced and interchanged.

In dealing with tubes of this nature, it is essential that particular attention be given to the insulation and the protection of the terminal ends of the tube from the elements. I accordingly provide a socket enclosed in an insulator housing and form the socket in such a manner that it comprises yieldable side walls which readily accommodate themselves to the insertion and withdrawal of the tubes and at all times maintain a perfect contact.

I also provide the socket with means for adjustably positioning the side walls of the socket so that the socket may be made to yieldably receive the end of the tube without placing undue strain either upon the tube or the socket. In this respect I form the bottom wall of the socket in the shape of a dome and provide adjustable compression means to flatten the dome with the result that the 'side walls which are integral with the dome are forced inwardly. By this arrangement I am enabled to adjust the side walls with respect to their angular relation to the bottom wall of the socket.

The yielding walls of the socket also provide another advantage which arises when tubes are interchanged and which may have unequal spacing between the tube ends. It is clear that if tubes having unequally spaced ends for insertion into sockets are interchanged in the same sockets, the tube must take a considerable strain unless the socket yields. My socket is so designed as to eliminate this strain by virtue of yieldable side walls.

In forming the socket, I first provide a. flat blank of distinctive shape and by a pressing operation, form the blank into a cup-shaped socket having resiliently expansible sectional side walls which are capable of being adjusted to create various positions of the side walls and thereby form a yieldably expansible socket for embracing the end of the luminescent tube.

It accordingly becomes a further object of this invention to provide a socket formed of a blank.

A further object of the invention is to provide the tube ends with lead-in wires which are so 5 arranged as to form a perfect contact with the (Cl. 173-328DE) socket and eliminate the customary metallic thimble used to enclose the discharge ends of the tubes.

With my arrangement, several advantages become obvious, foremost among which is: I obviate the difficulty heretofore encountered, of having to disconnect the source of electricity from the interior of the structure when desiring to replace parts of the tube circuit; I also relieve the tubes of any strain between sockets. It is to be understood that in signs of this character, the indicia which is the tubes, has been standardized so that letters, for example, forming the indicia may be interchanged and fit within sockets provided for this purpose. However, the difficulty has been that, in changing the indicia, disconnections must be made and the indicia which perforce of its character is formed of glass, oftentimes has been broken due to the strain placed thereon resulting from unequal spacing of the ends of the tube with respect to the sockets. My improved socket with the yieldable side walls readily overcomes this difliculty and the arrangement provided on the ends of the tube in conjunction with my socket obviates any necessity of disconnecting the source of power during any alterations of the sign.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent as the description proceeds in conjunction with the drawing in which:

Fig. l is a sectional view showing my invention embodied in a unit of a sign structure;

Fig. 2 is a section taken on line 2-2 in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a view of the socket construction disassociated from the assembled view of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a plan view of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a view showing the shape of the blank used to form the socket, and

, Fig. 6 shows a modified form of a tube end construction.

Referring to the drawing and particularly to Fig. 1 wherein I have illustrated a fragmentary view of a sign construction, A designates an insulation casing attached to an apertured sign supporting plate B by means of lugs G. The insulation casing A is provided with an internal chamber 11 into which extends a down-turned end of a tube H. The open end of the chamber is closed by means of a compressible member I of any suitable material, preferably rubber. A saddle F is arranged on the plate B by means of a bracket 56 suitably attached to the plate B as shown at 5'! and supports the tube H at a fixed distance from the plate B. This distance controls the distance that the end of the tube extends into the chamber 11 which is shown by the distance D between the points 58 and 59.

In practice the tube H is held upon the saddle F by means of a criss-lcross tie shown at 60-. The inner end of the tube H is received within a socket generally designated which is mounted in the chamber 11 by means of a bolt 14 that extends through an aperture 18 in the base 19 of the 'housing A. The bolt 14 extends into a recess 20 in the base 19 and is provided with nuts 21 and 22 which are arranged to hold the socket 10' fixed within the chamber 11.

Extending into the recess 20, I provide an insulated cable C, which for purposes of assembling,

is equipped with a nut 23 attached to the end'of the cable so that upon turning the bolt 14 by the kerfed head 12, the nuts 21, 22 and 23 are screwthreaded upon the bolt 14. It is to be noted that the connection thus formed is protected by a lower base portion 24 of the housing member A.

The structure of the socket 10 will now be described. Referring to Fig. 5, it will be observed that the blank from which the socket is formed, comprises a central section 39 having radiating fingers 25, 26 and 27 with fins 33, 34 and 35 formed on the outer ends of the fingers respectively. 'The central portion 39 is also provided with a central aperture 32. In forming the socket, the central section 39 forms thebottom wall 28 of the socket and the fingers 25, 26 and 27 are bent upwardly to form side walls. During the forming process the fingers and the fins above designated are formed into arcuate side wall members so as to enclose a circumference and may be flared at the top, best shown in Fig. 3.

In order to obtain the utmost resiliency, I provide a reversed curve, designated 38, near the base of the fingers which forms heels 29, 30 and 31 and in eifect produces reversed curved shoulders 41, 42 and 43 on the-side wall members 25, 26 and27 respectively. In addition, the bottom wall 28 of the socket is domed as indicated at 40. The walls of the socket at this stage would be somewhat as indicated in the dotted lines shown in Fig. 3.

In order to bring the arcuate side wall members 25, 26 and 27 into a straight walled cylindrical socket, I provide a plate 15 extending across the bottom of the socket and place an apertured disk 13 over the hole 32 above the bottom wall. The bolt 14 is then passed through the disk 13, the aperture 32 in bottom wall 28 and the plate 15, and a nut 17 is screw-threadedly mounted thereon and drawn up against the plate 15. It will be appreciated that as tension is placed upon the nut 14 the dome 40 is flattened against the plate 15 as indicated in dotted lines 36 and the side walls 25, 26 and 27 are drawn inwardly until they assume the proper position as indicated in the full lines of Fig. 3. The nut 17 may be castellated or drilled with a holeas shown in 55 to lock it into position once the parts have assumed their proper relative positions. The socket thus formed has a straight sided portion extending substantially from the end of the curvature at 38 to the point 37 or to the point where the flare at the top commences.

In assembling the socket within the chamber 11, the plate 15 slidably engages the bottom wall 16 of the chamber and the bolt 14, as before stated, extends through the aperture 18 into the recess 20. The socket thus positioned is free to turn for connecting the cable C to the bolt 14.

In conjunction with the socket 10, I provide means for connecting an electrode E mounted ,tached to the Inthis within the tube H to the socket walls. For this purpose I provide supporting members 48 which extend through the end of the tube H and support the electrode E therein. The outer ends of the member 48 are suitably connected to strips 44, 45 and 46 (shown at 47) which strips extend upwardly externally of the tube H.

In practice, the strips above mentioned are shielded from the tube H by means of a mica thimble-51. The strips 44, 45 and 46 extend upwardly externally of the mica thimble and are held in place by a conductor ring 53 suitably atupper end of the strips. The ring 53 isadapted to slidably engage the walls of the socket'lO as shown at 54 and in case of any inaccuracy in the length of the tube extending into the socket 10, the straight wall portion 61 between the points 37 and 38 will operate to accommodate these variations.

-As means towards the utmost in utility, I provide the chamber 11 with an outlet J which communicates with the atmosphere and prevents any accumulation of pressure within the chamber 11. In Fig. 6 I have shown a slightly different form for the end of the tube connection. form the same conductor strips 44, 45 and 46 are employed and the mica thimble 51 also encloses the end of the tube. However, in this form, the mica thimble extends completely across the end of the tube and is provided with slits 52 through which the members 44', 45 and 46 extend and form U-shaped bends 50. This form of tube will be recognized as a substantially completely shielded arrangement.

In using my invention for replacing tubular elements in a sign structure employing luminescent tubes, the tubes are replaced by withdrawing the end of the tube from the socket and inserting another tube. The operation is made without interfering with any other part of the structure and without disconnecting any conductors. Furthermore, in case the ends of the various tubes are not spaced equi-distant, it is obvious that the socket 10 will yield and accommodate itself to this variation of distance. It therefore becomes clear that I have provided a tube mounting characterized by the improvement hereinbefore set forth.

Although I have shown a single embodiment of my invention, I am aware that it may be modified in some respects without departing from the principle involved. I therefore intend this disclosure to include all such forms of my invention as come within the scope of the specification and the purview of the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. A mounting for a tube of the character described embodying: a socket adapted to receive an end of said tube, said socket having a plurality of resiliently expansible side wall segments and a domed bottom wall; and means operable upon said domed bottom wall for controlling the radial position of said side wall segments relative to each other.

2. For use in mounting tubes of the character described, a socket comprising: a bottom wall; arcuate fingers extending upwardly from said bottom wall and forming resiliently expansible sectional walls to said socket; and fins on the upper ends of said fingers, said fins being arcuate in cross-section and flared outwardly at their upper ends so as to form a yieldably expansible circumferential opening to said socket.

3. For use in mounting tubes of the character described, a socket comprising: an upwardly 1.

domed bottom wall; a plurality of fingers extending upwardly from said bottom wall and forming resiliently expansible side walls to said socket;

and compression means operable to flatten said domed wall and force said side walls inwardly.

4. For usein mounting tubes of the character described, a socket comprising: an upwardly domed bottom wall; a plurality of fingers extending upwardly from said bottom wall and forming resiliently expansible side walls to said socket; a disk extending across said domed bottom wall; and means for flattening said domed wall against said disk to force said side walls inwardly.

5. In a mounting for tubes of the character described, the combination of: an insulated chamber; a tube receiving socket mounted in said chamber, said socket embodying an upwardly domed bottom wall; a plurality of fingers extending upwardly from said bottom wall and forming resiliently expansibl'e side walls to said socket; and means associated with said domed bottom wall for forcing said side walls inwardly.

6. In a mounting for tubes of the character described, the combination of: an insulated chamber; a tube receiving socket mounted in said chamber, said socket embodying an upwardly domed bottom wall; a plurality of fingers extending upwardly from said bottom wall and forming resiliently expansible side walls to said socket; a disk extending below said domed bottom wall; compression means operable to flatten said domed wall against said disk and force the side walls of said socket inwardly; said compression means embodying a screw threaded bolt arranged to extend through an aperture in said chamber; and a conductor connected to said bolt.

7. In a mounting for tubes of the character described, the combination of: an insulated chamber; a tube receiving socket mounted in said chamber, said socket embodying an upwardly domed bottom wall; a plurality of fingers extending upwardly from said bottom wall and forming resiliently expansible side walls to said socket; a disk extending below said domed bottom wall; compression means operable to flatten said domed wall against said disk and force the side walls of said socket inwardly; said compression means embodying a screw threaded bolt arranged to extend through an aperture in said chamber; and means for connecting a conductor to said bolt, said means also serving to fix said socket within said chamber.

FERDINAND L. NELSON. 

